Way back in January, I reviewed the book, Embroidered Treasures: Flowers, a wonderful compilation of embroidery pieces held by the Embroiderers’ Guild of the UK.
Guess what? The next Embroidered Treasures album is coming soon – and today, I just wanted to give you a heads up and quick little look at it!
Like the Flowers book, Embroidered Treasures: Birds promises to be an exciting and inspiring look at a wide array of embroidery projects from different eras that feature our feathered friends.
If you love birds and you love embroidery, and if you’re fascinated by the history of embroidery, you will love having this book in your library! Better yet, it is such a pretty book that it doesn’t need to be consigned to a bookshelf. It’s a perfect “coffee table” book, one that you can pick up and browse through at leisure, gleaning striking bursts of beauty and helpful bits of information every time you meander through it.
I’ve had the pleasure of perusing an advanced copy of the book, thanks to Search Press, and it is everything you’d want – beautiful, informative, and inspiring!
Throughout the book, you’ll find embroidered birds from a wide spectrum of artistic eras, covering a wide variety of techniques.
There are 17th century birds, like those above…
…to folky, more modern birds.
All sorts of birds populate the book, from stylized birds to realistic renditions of birds in needlework.
The format and approach of the books is similar to the Flowers book, which you can see in detail here.
With each featured embroidery, you’ll find dates, provenance, and all the details of techniques and materials used to create the embroidery.
Why I Like It
What I love about this new series of books from the Embroiderers’ Guild of the UK is that you can learn much from each book, just by studying the pieces in it.
No, it’s not an instructional project book – you won’t learn how to recreate, step-by-step, the embroidery pieces you see. But you will learn a lot about the history and development of embroidery, and you’ll see, at a glance, what kinds of techniques can be used to produce a certain look or style of embroidery.
This is very helpful, if you have ideas in mind for a project, but you’re not sure what techniques to use to get the look you want.
Soooo…. bird lovers, historical needlework buffs, and general embroidery enthusiasts – this book’s for you!
Where to Find It
You can find Embroidered Treasures: Birds available for pre-order through the following sources:
Embroidered Treasures: Birds is available on Amazon. I’ve added it to my Needle ‘n Thread Recommendations Page on Amazon.
Here’s a direct link to the book on Amazon.
Worldwide, with free shipping, you’ll find the book available here at Book Depository.
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Dear Mary
Embroidered Treasures looks like and interesting book such beautiful photos of embroidered birds through various eras and a must have for the enthusiast interested in historical embroidery and the development of embroidery. Thanks you for sharing with us the book on historical birds and for the photos and links. I hope you have a great week.
Regards Anita Simmance
This book looks beautiful. I have the RSN Book of Embroidery, which I think is also (almost) a coffee table book – it’s so fantastic! I’ll have to check this one out.
your friend in threads,
Karla
ps I love the expression on the face of the bottom rooster
Thank you for alerting us to both of these beautiful resources…quite tantalizing and they do look inspirational. I think at least the bird one has found its way onto The List!
Off topic question: Are you, Mary, or anyone in the community familiar with a pin frame? I saw one online. One takes a simple homemade wooden frame and pads it well, wraps with an outer layer, then stretches and pins ground fabric on it. Apparently was used long ago. Has anyone tried it? Does it manage to keep fabric tight? I can’t think there would be any advantage over tacking the fabric as on an Evertite? Just maybe a lap-soft, inexpensive frame made from items already in craft supplies if it doesn’t need to be constantly readjusted? So many unused picture frames accumulated…
Thanks!
Linda
Hi, Linda – I have heard of a pin frame, but it’s not all that different from stretcher bars, with the exception of padding the wooden frame. I haven’t tried it, so I’m not sure how well it would keep the tension. I think this depends on how well it is wrapped with the other layer, and what type of pins are used, etc. I’d definitely use pins that close, somehow, because having pin ends sticking out from a frame while you’re stitching can be problematic – threads will catch on them, and so will your fingers! But it’s worth a try, if you have the supplies. It might be a very economical choice that works well! That said, investing in a pair of Evertites isn’t a bad idea, because they can be used innumerable times, over and over again. I love mine!
Love to look through a new book (and actually read it) for new ideas… stitches ..
designs to fire my imagination.